Individuals are who they are as a direct result of their past. The past is the foundation upon which people’s future is built, and this is seen in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” about two sisters, Dee and Maggie, and their Mama. Dee, fortunately, was able to get a fancy education in the city with the support of her church, and reach a financially stable position, unlike her rural and traditional Mama and sister Maggie. In an attempt to connect to her past, she tries to gather traditional heirlooms and belongings, such as a quilt to showcase, but faces resistance from her family with differing values. Alice Walker, in her short story “Everyday Use”, applies indirect characterization through appearance, uses a vitriolic tone, and has Maggie act as a foil in order to portray Dee as a flamboyant, bitter, and an assertive character, all to glorify the rural and traditional character of Mama and Maggie.
To start with, the financially stable Dee is a very showy and flamboyant character, which Walker depicts through her appearance. Walker describes Dee with a “dress down to the ground, in this hot weather. A dress so loud it hurts my eyes.” (79). In this description, the audience realizes that Dee is very ostentatious because despite the hot summer, Dee is wearing a long dress.
This also tells the audience that Dee prioritizes fashion over comfort, since she willingly wears such a long dress to the ground in the hot weather. In addition, the type of clothing further depicts her character trait. Walker depicts her dress as too loud, meaning it is very unique and fancy, telling the audience she must be rich. The uniqueness and fanciness also describes Dee herself because Dee also has been very grand in portraying her personality, similar to her dress. Furthermore, Walker depicts Dee with”..Earrings gold, too, hanging down to her shoulders”(80). She decides to wear golden earrings which are longer than necessary to the poverty stricken rural Georgia.
The fact that Dee wore long golden earrings down to her shoulder shows her desire to show off her success to even her poor family. This makes the reader feel a bit of sympathy, who compared to Dee, clearly are seen as poor. This also makes the audience feel hatred towards Dee and views her as a villain who is present in the setting only to show off and make others feel inferior and poor compared to her.
This creates a bit of sympathy for Maggie and Mama, who are portrayed in the oppressed setting. In addition to dislikeness for the flamboyant Dee expressed through appearence, Walker establishes her as a bitter character, creating more discontentedness for Dee and more respect for Maggie and Mama. Throughout the book, Walker obviously displays Dee as a bitter character through the use of a vitriolic tone. One example of such is when Mama describes the way Dee reads as “read[ing] without pity, forcing words, lies, other folk’s habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath” (79).
Walker, through Mama, uses strong words such as forcing and trapped in order to show the effect of Dee’s voice on Mama and Maggie. The fact that Dee has the ability to read without pity makes her seem heartless. Also, the statement that Mama felt that whole lives were being told to them two shows that she is overwhelmed by Dee, showing the audience that Dee herself is very overwhelming and strong. Furthermore, Dee is said to have “burned us with a lot of knowledge” (79). By writing that Dee was burning Maggie and Mama, Walker has the reader literally imagine Dee actually burning the two characters alive.
This image again portrays Dee as atrocious, and this affects the reader because the audience starts to share the same contemptuous view the narrator has towards Dee. By using the vitriolic tone established through negative wording, Maggie and Mama are seen as being oppressed and forced to submit to Dee, which makes Dee look evil and a torturer. Another tool utilized by Walker is setting Maggie as the foil of Dee, with contradicting values. Walker communicates through Dee that Maggie “probably be backward enough to put them [the quilt] to everyday use”” (82). This portrays Maggie as a rural character, who owns the minimal and uses all her belongings as an instrument to help in survival.
For her, the quilt is a form of cover. Also, that fact that this dialogue is coming from Dee shows that Dee is very inconsiderate of other’s feelings and disrespectful to her sister, as she rudely snatches the quilt for the purpose to ” ‘hang them'” (82). The reality that Dee wants to hang the quilt shows that Dee would want the quilt for the purpose of decoration. This shows her perspective on tradition, which she believes should be showcased, rather than lived. It also tells that audience, as stated earlier, that Dee prioritizes fashion and showcasing. Another example of Maggie being a foil is that Maggie is a character that “stand[s] helplessly in the corners, homely, and ashamed” (77).
This uncovers the lack of confidence in Maggie, who is still not completely over the trauma of her house burning down. Maggie is a character who is defeated and ashamed of herself, clearly lacking self esteem. Because of this, the audience starts to sympathize for Maggie, who has lost herself somewhere in the fire that burned down their house.
This is the exact opposite of Dee herself, who is “determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts” (79). This exhibits Dee as a very confident character, and the fact that she can stare down any problem shows that Dee has the strength to fight any complications that come in her way with her strong will power. When these two character are put next to each other in front of the audience, the reader realizes the world of difference between the two sisters, and how far apart the two sisters are. However, because Maggie is portrayed as weak and fragile compared to Dee, who seems to dominate, the audience starts to pity Maggie and house negative feelings for Dee. By the end of Walker’s “Everyday Use,” Dee, the face of urban and affluent culture, is defamed in order to praise rural and poverty through Maggie and Mama.
Today, though people see poverty as a negative thing, poverty is, from a perspective, the path through which people become thankful and appreciative of the little things in life that seem to be lost in this fast and growing world. People now require speed in order to survive in this kind of world and in this chaos to create a brighter future, many have lost their pasts, the way Dee did once she left for college in pursuit of a brighter and a better future. Dee, who on the surface may have seen Mama and Maggie suffering in poverty, may actually have missed the fact that their poverty is a gift that has taught Mama and Maggie to be independent and content with the little they have in their peaceful and poverty stricken rural Georgia.
